Jose De Santiago Perez, 27, was shot while gathered with friends in Kent’s North Park neighborhood near Second Avenue North and West Cloudy Street on the evening of March 18, 2020. Shots rang out just before 8 p.m.; Perez was struck in the head, taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and died there the next day on March 19, 2020.

Investigators later presented the shooting as deliberate and tied to a clash between rival groups. Charging documents and prosecutors described two men, Francisco Lopez-Cruz Jr. of Federal Way and Andy Castaneda-Rodriguez of Des Moines, as having driven through the area in an Audi, circling for about 26 minutes before opening fire and targeting Perez and two others. The records linked the defendants to the United Lokotes and described Perez and associates as connected to South Side Loco; prosecutors brought first-degree murder and related assault charges framed as gang-motivated.

Both defendants had been jailed since March 23, 2020, on unlawful firearm possession and were later held with high bail in the murder case. The prosecution reported building its case using surveillance, social media and cellphone records, witness interviews, and forensic examinations. Anyone with information about Perez or that night is urged to come forward.